Ondo 2024: You have 20 days to upload list of candidates, INEC tells APC, PDP, others

The chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has told the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and other political parties participating in the April primaries to upload the list of their candidates within 20 days.

Yakubu said the list should be uploaded on the INEC portal, just as he also advised the political parties to avoid acrimonious primaries.

Besides, the INEC boss also disclosed that 16 of 19 registered political parties had indicated interest in contesting the 16 November governorship election.

He stated this on Tuesday at The First Regular Quarterly Consultative Meeting With Political Parties For 2024 at the INEC Conference Room, Abuja.

According to him, party primaries in the Ondo State governorship election will start in the next two weeks on 6 April and end on 27 April.

“I urge political parties to adhere strictly to your proposed dates and modes of primaries. Frequent changes, as we witnessed recently during the Edo state primaries, are not only disruptive but costly.

“By the timetable and schedule of activities for the election, political parties have 20 days to upload the list and personal particulars of their candidates to the INEC portal.

“I also want to advise parties to avoid acrimonious primaries. Increasingly, the conduct of parallel primaries and the emergence of multiple candidates is a frequent occurrence.

“So, too, is the tendency to grant waivers to candidates who were a few days earlier card-carrying members of other political parties and nominating such persons to the Commission as their candidates for election.

“Some of these infractions lead to unnecessary litigation among party members in which the Commission is always joined as a party.

“The legal fees and cost of producing Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents can be used more productively in other electoral activities by the political parties and the Commission. We must find a solution to this situation,” Mr Yakubu said.